


between you and me it's complicated

by cykelops



Category: Marvel (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 09:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cykelops/pseuds/cykelops
Summary: Set after Return of Wolverine #1. Logan explores the confines of his mind and meets a man in a navy suit.





	between you and me it's complicated

**Author's Note:**

> I read the first issue and immediately knew i had to write this

He feels a pang of familiarity for every face he sees in the labyrinth of cells inside his mind. He's transversed the whole thing--every floor one hundred times over-- but he doesn't remember it. He _knows_ he must have, it's just the kind of thing he would do. He can’t hang on to anything beyond the door if he doesn't open it, and something's telling him he can't go down the line and open them all or his priorities would warp and muddle. _They took lifetimes from you_ , he had said. Lifetimes was too many responsibilities for one man. Specially a man already on a mission. Find Persephone. Take her down. Save a kid. Simple.

But he was a curious cat, he knew that much about himself, and he was greedy. There were doors he wanted to open so badly. He stood by them for what seemed like hours but could only be seconds, as that's all he ever had in this place. Every time, he convinced himself to move on and forgot the ache of _wanting_ until he came upon it again.

There was one such door on the very first floor, at the end of the block. He remembered which cells were important, even if he didn't remember what was inside them. Lots of important doors on the first floor. Lots of pretty women that made him feel… soft. But that last door. It wasn't a feeling he could place. Neither softness nor anger. More like _security_. Wolverine could use some security. He had earned at least one door for the wound on his side. He could treat himself to this.

He got to the door and remembered boys could be pretty too. The more experienced facets of himself found it funny that he could forget, and then not so funny that he had. There was a man inside the cell wearing a skintight navy blue suit. He stood when Wolverine came across him. Gold ran across his chest and arms like power lines. He clenched his fists and the red glass over his eyes pulsed and stilled. Wolverine liked the shadow stubble on his jaw, the faded scar beneath his full lips. Little imperfections on an annoyingly pristine cover, like _kintsukoroi_. Wolverine smiled privately. He hadn't needed a door to remember that word. It lifted his spirits.

He had earned his reward. Wolverine brought out the key and came closer to the door so he could meet his past. The man in the navy suit mirrored his steps, but when Wolverine reached for the lock he covered it with his hand.

“You don't want to remember me.” He said.

Wolverine scoffed. He had a teacher’s voice, condescending and firm, the sort of voice that could make a grown man embarrassed. Wolverine wasn't embarrassed, he wasn't about to let some skinny thing in a leotard tell him what he wanted to remember. He poked the key into his hand.

“You’ll feel better after I remember you, Slim.”

Wolverine recognized the pet name, so it had to mean _something_. Whatever it was, it made the man--Slim-- angry.

“I can see into the neighboring cells, Logan, and I can see myself. This is not who I was the last you saw me. This is the last time you _liked_ me.” The red line sparked.

Wolverine wrapped a hand around a bar and squinted closer at the man. He could almost place him. Almost.

“I am gonna open the door one way or the other, so you better come to terms with it now, bub.”

“I have nothing you want, not anymore. I am not your best friend, that's Kurt. I am not in your way anymore, Jean is dead. You don't have to follow me anymore, you have Storm. What am I to you? What am I that no one else could be?” The fabric of his suit bled. His visor melted against against his cheeks and crossed his face until there was only red. “I can't be your conscience anymore, Logan! We lost that. You grew up.”

Wolverine slammed his fists against the bars until they rattled and the man in the red suit did not flinch, accustomed to his outbursts after a lifetime of many such arguments.

“Ever thought I wanted to be something for _you_ for once? Something other than an annoyance, a problem to account for? Did it ever occur to you, fucking know-it-all, that I might love you beyond any condition or sense?”

Slim flinched then. Flinched all the way back to his navy blue suit with the gold lines. The pinch between his brows and the tight line of his lips struggled to remain as inflexible.

“You don't mean that.” He said half-heartedly.

Wolverine gripped his hand by the wrist and it went slack before he had to apply any force to take it off the lock. He pressed the key inside.

“So let's open the door and find out.”

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews + comments r welcome!


End file.
